While the Internet has given patients unprecedented access to medical information, it’s also given doctors the chance to express themselves beyond the exam room. Here’s a sampling of some recent posts on the medical blogs: A medical blog posting entitled Brittle Beauty caught my eye this week. In it, Sid Schwab, who describes himself as a “mostly retired” Puget Sound general surgeon, writes about how medical school gave him a “sense of wonder at the complexity and beauty of the human body,” but becoming a surgeon made him realize “how breakable and disposable it all is.” There are times, when driving, or riding my bike, when wielding a knife in or out of the operating room — or just breathing! — that I suddenly think of how tenuous it all is, how easily smashed and torn apart is this wonderful work of nature in which we find ourselves. It’s gelatin; it’s a paper bag. I don’t suppose the thought is unique to surgeons, or even health-folk in general. But we get a damnably intimate view, and there are times when it haunts me. Cinch your seatbelt, tighten the shoulder harness, keep two hands on the wheel. Wear a helmet. And for God’s sake, look both ways when you cross the street. Stanford University medical student Graham Walker, writing on the blog Over My Med Body!, has had a few posts of late about doing intrusive medical exams. As a student still observing, he is finding his presence unwelcome by female patients. I swear, every time I knock on a door, open it and say ‘Hello,’ I get a little look of awkwardness and discomfort from my patients. It’s a mix of surprise, disappointment and disapproval….I’m not present to make my patients feel uncomfortable. If I could somehow learn everything I need to learn without making anyone uneasy I would, but I can’t. His experience examining female patients started almost four years ago in an amusing but slightly juvenile post called Boobies, where a student was admonished for using the word “fantastic” when examining a woman’s breasts. “The instructor reminded us that “breasts are not fantastic. They are healthy or normal,” he wrote. And finally, on Musings of a Distractable Mind, the blogger named Dr. Rob speculates that he might have his own “placebo effect” after learning that one of his patients believed the antibiotics prescribed by a different doctor didn’t work as well. My own patients trust me a lot. They are convinced that I will fix their problem, and so they feel better just for getting the treatment. It is nice to have that trust, but I do feel uncomfortable with such high expectations. Source
